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Priyanka Chauhan

The life and livelihood of Somali journalists were in danger, and attacks to kill, hurt, harass and silence journalists were persistent throughout 2008. The 2008 annual report of the the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) reveals virulent attacks on journalists including unspeakable cases of killings, arrests, injuries, ill-treatments, abduction and death threats as well as serious, sophisticated and systematic harassment and intimidation in main cities, particularly Mogadishu,... MORE

Safety remains the single greatest concern for media professionals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite the fact that statistically speaking attacks against the press and journalists are down. The decline was more likely attributable to censorship and self-editing on the part of journalists, rather than any improvement to the country's press laws. The findings are from Journalist en Danger (JED)'s 2008 annual report on press freedom titled 'Ten years for press freedom: the... MORE

The number of newspapers in the US offering some form of user-generated content has doubled up. Overall, 58 per cent of newspapers offered some form of user generated content in 2008 compared to 24 per cent in 2007. In fact, 58 per cent of newspapers allowed for user generated photos in 2008, while 18 per cent accepted video and 15 per cent articles. The number of newspaper websites allowing users to comment on articles more than doubled in 2008. About 75 per cent of newspapers now accept... MORE

During the past year, ninety-five journalists in 32 countries paid with their lives for exercising their profession. This figure, according to the 2008 Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) report, is lower than the record 115 journalists killed last year, but this drop of 17.5 per cent is solely due to an improvement in security in Iraq. On average, nearly two journalists were killed every week in the course of the last three years (96 in 2006; 115 in 2007; 95 in 2008). Many others were injured,... MORE

A veteran crime reporter José Armando Rodríguez’s murder has been instrumental in the launch of a nationwide campaign to protect journalists in Mexico. In November 2008, Rodríguez was shot dead at his home in Ciudad Juárez on the Texas border. With the government doing little to protect journalists, ARTICLE 19 and National Centre for Social Communication (CENCOS) have launched their own campaign against the brutal and targeted killings of their colleagues. “Te hace dano no saber” (“What you don... MORE

Justice still eludes Radio Echo 2000 journalist, Brignol Lindor, who was murdered in the southwestern town of Petit-Goâve, Haiti in 2001. Two men implicated in the murder were given life sentences in December 2007. Seven others, convicted in absentia of Linder’s murder on January 23 this year, are still on the run. Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) hopes the appointment of Lindor’s family lawyer Jean Joseph Exumé as Justice Minister on November 7 will bring complete closure to a case... MORE

The public outcry over the arrest and humiliation of the former managing editor of leftwing daily Libération , Vittorio de Filippis, may lead to the modification of libel laws in France. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, giving in to the simmering discontent, over the journalist’s arrest, has said that he wants to change the law and decriminalise defamation, thereby removing the threat of arrest and imprisonment. “The president understands the emotions caused by the execution of a judicial... MORE